Monitoring and Reporting Progress
Question 11: Are you monitoring progress on a regular basis?
Good Practice: The project plan should be monitored and updated on a weekly basis. This is important since tasks are usually underestimated and many new tasks will be identified as the project moves forward.
"...many people use what is called Rolling Wave Planning. This is when you plan down to the level of detail currently known and go back to plan deeper once more information is acquired. Usually rolling wave planning needs to stay at least 2 to 3 months ahead of the actual work being done, but of course this varies slightly by industry." ¹
If you create plans at the beginning of a project, put them in a draw and forget them, why bother creating them in the first place?
Common Mistakes
- Project plans never updated beyond the first draft.
- Using non-binary milestones.
- Low level tasks are not complete until they are complete; they should be measured as either 0% or 100% complete.
Warning Signs!
- The number of open issues continues to rise.
- Contingency plans are used faster than the rate of progress on the project.
¹ Micah Mathis, PMP, Work Breakdown Structure: Purpose, Process and Pitfalls (6th October 2007).
